What is it with Canadian actors in Hollywood perpetually sounding like they've either just woken up or are, to put it charitably, riding on the short bus?  Keanu Reeves has been ridiculed for his dopey demeanor for years and it says here that Jumper's Hayden Christensen is going to be hearing a lot of the same sorts of comments as the kindly Mr. Reeves.  Don't get me wrong ... I've never had the post-Star Wars hate-on for Christensen that many do and think he's actually a very expressive physical actor - hell, I even think Reeves can be pretty damn good when matched with the appropriate material - but come on, man, have a shot or two of espresso before hitting the set in the morning ...

Christensen sleep walks his way this time through Doug Liman's teleportation action film Jumper  in which the man who once made Swingers steps even farther into his Hollywood action director persona and Christensen leaps from one stunning location to the next while doing battle with Samuel L. Jackson's Very Bad Hair.  At one point Liman was one of the smartest indie directors going, building his stuff around razor sharp dialog before proving action could be smart, too, with the first Bourne film before, apparently, deciding "Fuck it, I just want to blow shit up." with Mr And Mrs Smith.  Jumper is much more like the latter than the former.

Liman is saddled with a wafer thin script here thanks (?) to Blade's  David Goyer - who is capable of much better than this - one that pretty much completely ignores any sort of character work at all and pits Christensen and other teleporters like him against a gang of psycho religious fanatics who would be beyond laughable if Liman gave you even a moment to stop and think about what was happening on screen.  But, damn if it doesn't all work anyway.  Liman's smart enough to focus on what he does well - namely hyper kinetic action sequences - and blessed with arguably one of the finest actors of his generation in Jamie Bell to play opposite Christensen.  Jackson's in full on scenery chewing mode, always a good time, but it's Bell that really saves the film on a performance level as he effortlessly steals every second of every scene that he appears in. 

For a Liman film Jumper needs more Vince Vaughn - i.e. any Vince Vaughn - and a hell of a lot more script but for a big Hollywood action fest you could do an awful lot worse.  You'll have forgotten just about everything about it within five minutes of the adrenaline wearing off but while the juice is still flowing it's a hell of a fun ride.  Disposable, yes, but fun.  Liman's charms aside, however, the real reason to see this thing is the new Indiana Jones trailer playing in front of it.  More of the good Doctor, please ...